Obama weighs in on race, reluctantly

President Barack Obama’s agitation following the George Zimmerman verdict was apparent to people in the West Wing all week — so it was frustrating, if not surprising, to some in Obama’s circle that he waited nearly a week to express his feelings publicly.

Since his reelection, the nation’s first black president has said he’ll be more willing to discuss more volatile issues, including race, which many close to the president see as the unexploded political ordnance of two presidential campaigns.

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Obama: Trayvon Martin 'could have been me'

Obama’s struggle with race

But his decision to weigh in emotionally on a Friday afternoon — more a time for news dumps than major statements — reflected Obama’s longstanding ambivalence about weighing in on a topic that will largely define his place in history. His remarks, by far the most expansive discussion of race in years, came only after days of soul searching, and apprehensive monitoring of the news to make sure the prospect of violence had receded enough to speak publicly.

When Obama has addressed race in the past — as when he described the subtle racism of his white grandmother during his famous Philadelphia address — the results have been memorable, emphatic and a rare window into his feelings about an issue that resonates deeply in his life.

Friday’s remarks were more rushed and informal, but delved the same emotional depths: For one of the rare times since the publication of his memoirs 18 years ago yesterday, the president addressed what it felt like to be a black man in America, cycling through a list of experiences that shaped his world view – white people locking their doors, walking across the street, clutching their purses.

Obama was prepared to address the issue during a round of rapid-fire interviews with Spanish language press on Tuesday — but to the astonishment of White House staff, Obama wasn’t asked about it during two hours of round-robin questioning largely confined to immigration reform.

Still, that calibrated response wouldn’t likely have gone nearly as far as the one he gave during his surprise appearance at the White House press room podium late Friday.

Obama was expected to make a relatively bland statement about the verdict. Instead, he went much further than staff expected, eliciting cheers and fist pumps from many aides, flabbergasted by his delayed personal response, when he declared, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

“He wasn’t going to throw gasoline on the fire,” said an Obama aide earlier this week when asked why the president — who had previously likened slain teenager Trayvon Martin to his son — had been largely mum since Zimmerman. “But you could tell he wanted to say something, he had to say something.”

Obama gathered a small group of senior aides Thursday night and told them that he wanted to address the case. He had watched the reaction to the verdict throughout the week and discussed it with friends and family, a White House aide said.

The president didn’t want any media build-up to the remarks — and he preferred a less formal setting — so they decided he would surprise the White House press corps during the daily briefing, the aide said. Obama brought only an index card of handwritten notes to the podium and spoke largely off the cuff, the aide said.

Obama’s staff felt it was one of the most powerful moments of his presidency. Martin’s parents applauded the president in a statement Friday.

“What touches people is that our son, Trayvon Benjamin Martin, could have been their son,” Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton said. “President Obama sees himself in Trayvon and identifies with him. This is a beautiful tribute to our boy.”

A stickier issue is the Justice Department’s decision to explore a potential civil rights case against Zimmerman, a move that came in the wake of an NAACP petition drive to bring charges against the 29-year-old former neighborhood watch volunteer.

Several administration sources over the past several days have questioned whether federal statute will cover the Martin incident, even as Obama personally anguished over the case.